Rating: 
Summary: Um.... It Was An Ok Book
Review: Spinners definitely didn't quite do it for me. I expected the book to be an amazing retale of the legendary fairy tale Rumpelstiltskin, but instead it was quite an odd read. I have heard many good things about the author Donna Jo Napoli and about how poetic and beautiful her writing is, but I did not witness any of these good qualities in this novel. The book started off interestingly enough with the introduction of a young tailor who is deeply in love with a young woman, who is the daughter of a farmer. The tailor wishes to marry the young woman but her father won't let him because he says the man is not financially stable. The Tailor grows desperate and brags to the farmer that he can spin gold out of straw. He bargains with the farmer and says that if he is able to make a gold wedding dress for the women out of the golden straw, then he should be allowed to marry her. In the process of turning the straw into gold the tailors leg becomes crippled and he turns into an ugly and hunchbacked man. The young women instead marries the miller and she dies giving birth to the tailor's child. In the rest of the novel we get to know the tailor's daughter Saskia. the novel was able to hold my interest in the beginning but as it progressed it slowly deteriorated. The cliff hanger ending was horrible and left me feeling as though I had wasted my time reading the book in the first place, if not everything was going to be explained. In conclusion, there are a lot of other better books out there to read, and you shouldn't waste your time reading this disappointing attempt at a novel.
Rating: 
Summary: A pretty but sad story -- a must read!
Review: Spinners is a terrific retelling of the story of Rumpelstiltskin! (It has a great cover, too.) Spinners adds onto the original fairy tale a bit, showing you the perspective of the title character, who starts out as a talented tailor, who's poor but at the height of his life. He goes through a lot and you really have sympathize him. This book didn't end the way I hoped, and I'm trying not to spoil the book for you - but I must say, this book's ending was VERY tragic and . . . well, disappointing! I mean, the tailor never got what he deserved! However, this book provokes emotion as it was probably meant to and it does a great job, too. I highly recommend this book to others (at least above the age of 12)!
Rating: 
Summary: Spinners
Review: SPinners is a twist of the story of Rumplestiltskin. The story starts before the king even knows of the young girl's supposed talent of spinning straw into gold. Napoli reworks a traditional fairy tale bringing two dimensional characters into richly lively people. She develops a prequel introducing us to the character of Rumplestiltskin, bringing a touch of understanding to why he was as he was. Napoli is a stunning writer. SHe brings newness to fairy tales and compassion to those "evil characters" we hated because they were the bad guy.
Rating:
Summary: Bittersweet retelling of Rumpelstiltskin
Review: Spinners is the tale of a young tailor who is in love with a beautiful woman. He promises the woman's father that he can make her a wedding gown of gold. The father says that if the tailor's boast is true then he will allow the woman to marry him. He manages to spin straw into gold and make the dress but he becomes a cripple in the process. Because of his condition, he loses the woman he loves and their unborn daughter. Spinners is a bittersweet retelling of Rumpelstiltskin. It far surpasses the original story because it examines all the characters' motivations which makes the story more meaningful. The characters are very well written and the authors really make you feel for all of them. I found myself wanting every character to have a happy ending even though I knew that wasn't likely. If you are a fan of re-told fairy tales then I highly recommend Spinners. I know I'll probably read everything by Donna Jo Napoli that I can get my hands on.
Rating:
Summary: Spinners
Review: Spinners was one of the best books I've ever read. When I first picked it up, I had no idea what it was about. After the first few pages, I was enthralled. I had no idea what was going to happen to the spinner, especially after he lost his girl. I could not believe it when he said his name. I picked up the book again not long ago, and I had almost forgotten what it was about. When I finished it, I was in love with it, and had fallen in love all over again. It was one of the best books I've ever read, and I will read it all over and over and over again.
Rating:
Summary: A Tragic Story of Love, Betrayal, and Heartbreak
Review: The story begins as happily as one can expect of a retold fairytale. The tailor and his beloved, who happens to be a spinster, share passionate moments together within a barn. He goes to her father, expecting him to accept his suit, but the father doubts he can provid for his daughter as well as the old miller can. In an act of desperation the tailor claims he can spin straw into gold, which is when the reader begins to feel a prick of familirarity. He finds the means to do this on a magic wheel that he takes from an old spinster. He spins for over a day and ends up crippling his leg, but as promised he spins her a gold wedding dress and she repays the poor tailor by abandoning him because of his ugliness and his crippled state, leaving him for the miller. He soon finds out she is pregnant with his child and he plans on winning her back by revealing her shame to the miller, thinking that she would turn to him as her last hope, but she dies in childbirth. The tailor leaves town without a bacward glance, carrying the spinning wheel on his back. The story then flash forwards ten years, giving us a glimpse of the life of his daughter, Sasika. She shortly thereafter becomes a master spinster and after several plot twists they meet. The story definitely feels familiar after the spinner spins the straw into gold for Sasika. I held my breath, thinking that maybe the spinner wouldn't ask for the child because she was his daughter after all, but he still does, for reasons I will not reveal, in fear of spoiling it for those who haven't read this book. I'm glad they stuck to the original story, but I still felt like at this point the story was starting to fall apart. There is less description, the spinner becomes less likeable because he spurns the love of Elke (the women who got the spinner a job at the castle and gave him a home in the woods), he refuses to explain anything to Sasika, and he wants to selfishly take her baby. Though I couldn't really blame him for any of this and I felt the pain he had gone through, the end still left me longing for answers to the questions I had. The end is very tragic and they could have added another twenty pages to satisfy the curiosity of the reader, but it was still worth the read. It adds depth and meaning to the original story and all in all it was a wonderful read. I hightly recommend it, but if you want a happy ending, you'd be better off reading another fairytale.
Rating:
Summary: i like it-except the end
Review: this book was so beautiful and i loved it, until the last page. the ending is so bad it makes me mad! it makes nooooo sence compared to her other books. usually her endings are wonderful, beautiful and have a reason for being what they are, but this one totally ruins the book. i think you should read it, though, and help me tell the author yo change the ending! Donna Jo Napoli, if your listening, change the ending or at least tell us confused readers why!
Rating: 
Summary: well written, but not a good story
Review: This book was very well written in the way that it is constantly in present tense. It is pretty cool reading a book in that form (you don't find that very often) but that enjoyment was overshadowed by the ending. I for one enjoy happy endings and i did not feel that this one as reolved. You really pity the Rumplstilskin character, but he is never really happy. I would not recommend reading this book if your standards require a happy ending, as mine do.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous Fairy Tale
Review: This book was wonderful, as a spinner myself, I was even more pulled in by the story. That is until the last page. Why did it have to end that way? An awful ending to a beautiful book. Five stars until the last page, that gets one.
Rating:
Summary: ....breathtaking
Review: this book was, is, amazing. its tender, precise details, for one thing, were beautiful, as all donna jo napoli's books are. and her partership with richard tchen was sensational. then, its sadness. this book is very sad, beautifully sad. and the ending is depressing! but i wouldn't let that ruin it for you. i reccomend this book, i definitely reccomend this book. it is the story of a man who loved someone so much, he was willing to do the impossible. the story of loss, and obsession. it is the story of saskia. i enjoyed the descriptions of her yarns, the simple beauty of them. the only thing i didn't like was the ending, and what happens to the man. but sadness is a part of every story, and this one just happens to be a beautiful one, one that you shouldn't let slip by you. READ THIS BOOK!
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